Page 1 of Which Budget DVD Player?

I am looking to buy a dvd recorder but dont really want to spend more than £70. The best one I have probably seen so far is the philips dvdr3380 as this also supports divx but have seen in reviews that philips hardware can be fairly unreliable.

Please help me come to a decision on which one to buy

cheers

mark

Well, unless you can find a Toshiba or some other big name in a sale somewhere, your options are very limited.

I would not touch a Philips recorder with a barge pole - they are notoriously unreliable.

Have to say I would search out a Liteon - I know you can get them in that price bracket. Their hardware is also unreliable, but they play DivX amd they come with a free 2 year manufacturer`s waranty and superb after sales customer service.

You would need to keep the box and receipt safe, but you will have no trouble at all in getting it fixed (with no cost in delivery etc) if it goes wrong - average turnaround time is a week, often just 4 days, regardless of repairs required. Not many other brands can boast that!

Here is a Lite-on with a hard drive for a bit more than you wanted to spend, having had two dvd recorders with a hard drive, i wouldn`t buy one without one now.
Pay the extra, well worth having a hard drive, you record to the machine first, edit your recording, then copy to disc.
I have no experience on this machine, so this is not a personal recommendation, just pointing out the offer
:)
no freeview, but it is under £100, & you can get a cheap freeview box for under £20

Oh, and i agree with Sue, DON`T buy a Phillips!

This item was edited on Tuesday, 18th September 2007, 20:47

I have the philips 3380 got it for 15 notes off ebay as faulty but it was a blocked problem as described below, only got it for divx playback,its been a great player but wouldnt reccomend buying it really. No eject button on the remote, all philips are like this have to use the stop button on boot. Really Really slow at starting up, and can not do anything until is starts up. Screen comes up blocked now and again as disc draw sticks common fault, have use a release catch to underneath to get it work. Divx playbacks pretty good, though to fast forward/rewind you have to go through a couple of menus to do it, which is very annoying

Recording`s fine but dont really use this much as but its pain swapping to the tuner to dvd mode but to be honest as i dont use it really have not really read the intstructions on that aspect just played around for a couple of hours with it when first got it, have a toppy to do that work, it can be a bit fussy with some brands dvdrw, it can be made multi
region with a hack, theres a couple of firmware updates to sort out a couple of niggles.

Overall its been a good machine for me, apart from the niggles but cost me peanuts. but would start saving a bit more of the old cash and buy different brand third type of philips dvd player/surround kit I have had dont why i keep buying there stuff however have found the tvs i have had and photo frame the best products for me from them. The major point not to buy it is the slow startup, you can boil a kettle faster.



A WISE MAN ONCE SAID

This item was edited on Wednesday, 19th September 2007, 10:35